Real estate developers are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into local Virginia elections in what critics call an effort to win over city and county leaders who must approve their development projects. Virginia is the “Wild West” of campaign contributions, experts say, with no limits on how much individuals can give candidates as long as contributions are publicly reported.
Fairfax County supervisors up for re-election this year brought in $273,387 from developers since January 2010. That includes $84,977 shared among six supervisors who had no election competition. Chairman Sharon Bulova, D-at large, took in $133,150 from developers.
The average contested Fairfax board race cost $175,665 in 2007.
Meanwhile, Arlington County Board Member Barbara Favola and Alexandria City Councilman Rob Krupicka, both Democrats running for state Senate, got $63,244 and $24,944, respectively, from developers this year.
Fairfax supervisors regularly get campaign cash from developers doing business before the board. Tysons Corner developers Cityline Partners, Georgelas Group and Gerald Halpin all contributed to supervisors over the past two years and have zoning applications pending.
Several developers declined to comment on their contributions.
“Much of what we do in the county board is land use and revitalization and development, so naturally we have a lot of interactions with people in that field,” said Supervisor Penelope Gross, D-Mason, who has taken $24,685 in the past two years from real estate developers and construction companies.
Others question the relationship with developers.
“The sad part is that candidates really don’t need the money. Voters vote for the party brand; most voters only have a vague idea of what the supervisors are, and they certainly don’t focus on the individual messages of each candidate,” said Arthur Purves, president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers’ Alliance. “Developers want candidates to believe that they need a lot of money so that elected officials will be beholden to the big contributors. Eisenhower warned against the military-industrial complex; he should have warned against the big-business-political complex.”
Fairfax supervisors don’t see it that way. Those with uncontested races say they still need campaign money to let people know what they stand for.
Supervisor Pat Herrity, R-Springfield, took in $21,101 from real estate and construction companies in 2011 for his uncontested race, but that money doesn’t influence his decisions, he said.
“We’ve had board members in the past who’ve been kind of ‘Pay me now, pay me later.’ I don’t operate that way and I don’t know any of my current fellow supervisors operate that way,” he said.
